Improvement of polymer electrolyte fuel cell performance using gas diffusion layer with wettability distribution for water distribution control

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23360097
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Thermal engineering
• Research Institution: Yokohama National University
• Principal Investigator: UTAKA Yoshio 横浜国立大学, 工学(系)研究科(研究院), 教授 (50114856)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): MATSUMOTO Hiroaki 横浜国立大学, 大学院工学研究院, 教授 (10251753) ; ARAKI Takuto 横浜国立大学, 大学院工学研究院, 准教授 (90378258) ; DAITOKU Tadafumi 秋田県立大学, システム科学技術部, 助教 (40452049) ; CHIN Shigo 横浜国立大学, 大学院工学研究院, 研究教員 (60611275)
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 燃料電池 / ガス拡散層 / 物質伝達 / 表面張力 / ぬれ性 / 拡散 / X線ラジオグラフィー

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The objective of the study was to improve the PEFC performance with newly proposed hybrid GDL, in which different wettability areas were alternately arranged. It was shown that the apparent oxygen diffusivity was increased by using hybrid GDL in comparison with the normal GDL, elucidating the characteristics by the simultaneous measurement of oxygen diffusivity and visualization of water distribution by X-ray tomography. On the basis of those results, the improvement of the actual PEFC with parallel gas channels of 200 mm long was achieved with the combination of hybrid GDL and microgrooves in gas channels.

Free Research Field

熱工学